Culture | Science Codex

Relieving pain affecting millions

An unprecedented gathering of some of Australia's leading authorities in pain medicine, together with consumer groups representing chronic pain sufferers, will meet in Melbourne today to work towards a national, coordinated approach to managing chronic pain.

The meeting has been called in recognition of the fact that one in five Australians will suffer chronic pain in their lifetime and up to 80% of people currently living with chronic pain are missing out on treatment that could improve their health and quality of life.

Fewer abortions translate to higher teenage birth rates in religious states?

Rates of births to teenage mothers are strongly predicted by religious beliefs say a duo writing in Reproductive Health who believe they have found a strong association between teenage birth rates and state-level measures of religiosity in the U.S.

Is Lyme disease following the ticks that spread it across the US?

Potentially debilitating Lyme disease doesn't afflict people everywhere that the ticks harboring it are found. At least not yet. A five-university consortium led by a Michigan State University researcher wants to find out why.

"These ticks are on the move. As ticks expand into new areas, more people will likely become infected," said MSU fisheries and wildlife assistant professor Jean Tsao, who will lead the four-year, $2.5 million study.

Number of kids with liver cancer dropping

A 20-year follow-up study revealed a dramatic drop in liver cancer cases among 6 to 19-year-olds who were vaccinated for the hepatitis B virus at birth, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In July 1984, a universal vaccination program was initiated among newborn children in Taiwan to prevent the hepatitis B virus infection, which can predispose to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, a primary malignancy of the liver.

Consumer spending like to decrease in current economy

Consumer spending will lag rather than lead the recovery from the current recession, according to University of Michigan economist Richard Curtin.

"In the coming years, U.S. consumers will save more and spend less," said Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers. "The recovery will be slow and uneven, and it could take a decade or more for consumers to restore their sense of financial security to pre-recession levels."

Older Americans surviving the recession better than others

Older Americans have weathered the financial crisis relatively well, although many now expect to work longer than they did just a year ago, according to a University of Michigan study released on Capitol Hill.

The study is based on data from 4,412 older Americans collected in April and May of this year in a special Internet survey of respondents of the Health and Retirement Study. The study is a nationally representative sample of Americans age 51 and older conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and funded by the National Institute on Aging.

ERCP medical procedure showing good results

A new study from researchers in Minnesota found that endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) performed in a community hospital setting results in complication rates that compare favorably with those of academic centers while achieving technical success at or above the performance levels recommended by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE)/American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Task Force. This is the first large study evaluating complications and quality indicators in a purely non-academic community practice.

Is freedom of the press really the cornerstone of democracy?

While many have argued that media freedom is integral to a functioning democracy and respect for human rights, a new study is the first to examine the effects of media freedom in countries that lack such democratic institutions as fair elections.

"We would expect to find most free media in democratic states and most controlled media in autocratic states, but this is not always the case," said Jenifer Whitten-Woodring, a doctoral candidate in political science and international relations at USC.

Bilingual kids have lower lexical scores, since they speak two languages

Elena Nicoladis, an experimental psychologist, recently published a study of unilingual and bilingual children's ability to recall words in Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Nicoladis' research with students between the ages of seven and 10 showed that bilingual children's lexical recall was slightly lower than their unilingual counterparts.

Prison gambling may lead parolees back to criminal habits upon release

Parolees with a gambling habit may resort to criminal activities and substance abuse when they are released from prison if there are few community supports to help them re-integrate, a University of Alberta study has concluded.

Gambling is prevalent in prisons and the study found that even inmates not habituated to the pastime before incarceration can acquire a taste for it they're unable to shake when released. It's a fact that has worrisome consequences often associated with the commission of crime and substance abuse as parolees try to re-integrate into society.

Prosecutors, police should be cautious with bite mark evidence, forensic scientists warn

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Against the backdrop of last week's Congressional hearing into the future of forensic science, researchers from the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Forensic Odontology Research in the School of Dental Medicine, have published a landmark paper on the controversial topic of bitemark analysis.

Chloride levels too high in northern US urban streams, study finds

Levels of chloride, a component of salt, are elevated in many urban streams and groundwater across the northern U.S., according to a new government study.

Chloride levels above the recommended federal criteria set to protect aquatic life were found in more than 40 percent of urban streams tested. The study was released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Elevated chloride can inhibit plant growth, impair reproduction, and reduce the diversity of organisms in streams.

Persistent pain may accelerate signs of aging by 30 years in middle-aged adults

Younger people with pain look similar in terms of their disability to people who are two to three decades older without pain, according to a study published in this month's issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. The results of the study uncovered that people with pain develop the functional limitations classically associated with aging at much earlier ages.

New method can predict 80 percent of cases of postnatal depression

Worldwide, 13% of women who give birth suffer from postnatal depression, which causes a significant deterioration in a mother's quality of life and her ability to care for her baby. Now, Spanish researchers have developed a model to diagnose this illness with a predictive power of 80% - the best result to date for this kind of depression.

Ironically, biofuel production could have adverse environmental impact in Gulf of Mexico

Scientists in Pennsylvania report that boosting production of crops used to make biofuels could make a difficult task to shrink a vast, oxygen-depleted "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico more difficult. The zone, which reached the size of Massachusetts in 2008, forms in summer and threatens marine life and jobs in the region. Their study is scheduled for the Oct. 1 issue of ACS' semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology.